


Cleaning Up Bottles With You

by neoqueentitania



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Attempted Fluff, F/M, New Year's Eve, Song: New Year's Day (Taylor Swift), Songfic, happy new year, i rated it t because they're hungover but that's about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22058533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neoqueentitania/pseuds/neoqueentitania
Summary: "I want your midnights, but I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day..."Natsu and Lucy wake before anyone else after yet another rowdy New Year's Eve party at the guild, cleaning and memories ensue.
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Cleaning Up Bottles With You

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020!

Lucy yawned and stretched, looking around the guildhall. As to be expected of New Year’s Day, after the biggest party of the year, the place was trashed, chairs were strewn across the floor, multiple flipped tables, glitter and confetti across the floor, Gray suspended from a ceiling beam by the waistband of his underwear. It was mildly concerning to Lucy that she was used to this.

She herself was lying on a table, a blanket around her shoulders that she couldn’t remember receiving, head pounding from the worst hangover she’d experienced in months. Her clothes were, thankfully, still on her body, but her hair was a mess and she couldn’t for the life of her remember where her shoes were.

“Mornin’ Luce,” Natsu slurred from… somewhere. 

Lucy looked around the guildhall, finding him lying under the table she was on. She screamed out of instinct, then helped him up, letting his head rest on her shoulder, too heavy for him to hold up on his own.

“Last night was something, huh?” Lucy laughed lightly as she looked at her friend’s sleepy face, pink dusted across his cheeks. “I’m still not used to how hard this guild parties. My head hurts.”

“My everything hurts,” Natsu mumbled. 

Lucy sighed and thought back to the night before, fondly recalling all the dancing, singing and laughing she and her friends had kept up until well past midnight, the countdown that they were pretty certain they’d been early for, the deafening roar of cheers that had erupted through the guildhall as they successfully welcomed another year with their friends.

Of course, they’d forgotten about cleaning the guildhall until after the fact, as they tended to do. 

Lucy sighed and pushed Natsu from her shoulder, climbing off the table to retrieve Gray, who was, miraculously, still asleep. He fell to the floor with a thud, yet still managed to stay asleep, curling into a ball on the floor, snores continuing. 

Usually, Lucy would wake everyone up and start setting them to work, but today felt different. Maybe it was the fact she was the least hungover of everyone, from what she could assume, or maybe it was just the lingering afterglow of her first New Year’s kiss the night before, either way, she’d decided to clean the guildhall on her own today.

She set to work, starting to pick up the chairs and set them straight again, careful to not disturb any of her sleeping guildmates. One chair had a broken leg, but she managed to set it straight and hoped nobody would sit in it until she’d left.

Next, she turned her attention to the tables. She moved over to one on the far right of the room, crouching down and attempting to lift it as quietly as possible, grunting from the weight. She probably should have waited for help, but she was determined.

Just as the table was about to escape her grip, she felt the weight get lighter as the table was lifted and put back upright.

“Let me help with that,” Natsu said, grinning as Lucy mumbled a thank you. Together, they turned the other tables upright, Lucy thanking Natsu after each one and Natsu telling her to be careful every time she attempted to lift one.

After the tables were set right, they started on picking up the discarded beer bottled littered across the floor, as well as some in weirder places, the most notable of which was one stuffed into a hole someone - Natsu - had punched into the wall the night before.

“Thank you for last night, by the way,” Lucy blushed as she pulled a bottle from Cana’s surprisingly strong sleeping grip.

Natsu shrugged, “I wanted you to have a good new year’s and you’re always talkin’ about some big kiss at midnight. Don’t know why it was such a big deal though.”

Lucy blushed harder, throwing the bottle in her hand at him.

“Don’t say that! I enjoyed it, it was special. Thank you…” 

Natsu laughed, picking up the bottle she’d weaponised against him and tossing it into a trash can behind the bar, clapping when it landed perfectly.

“Can you focus? I want this place clean before everyone wakes up,” Lucy scolded, throwing away another few bottles.

“Sorry,” Natsu half-heartedly apologised, then continued cleaning.

Lucy couldn’t help but feel a warmth spreading in her chest, not quite the feeling of butterflies, but something more, something more meaningful. Not the first rush of fleeting love, but the familiar comfort of a secure love you’ve known your whole life without realising it. The love that lasted past more than the glamorised midnight kiss, the love that stayed behind to nurse headaches and sore stomachs and clean away the mess on New Year’s Day.

She looked over the floor once she was certain they’d cleared away all the bottles, picking up one of the paintings Reedus had made the night before. He’d made several, capturing as many small moments between the guild as he could. There was one of Mirajane and Gajeel singing together, one of Erza carrying Wendy on her shoulders so she’d be able to reach the streamers that hung from the ceiling, one of Juvia and Gray stealing a kiss when they didn’t know anyone was looking, one of Levy loving gazing down at her baby bump while her guild partied on behind her.

Lucy teared up seeing the final painting, one of her and Natsu, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, drink in his other hand while she wrapped her arms tightly around his middle, capturing the moment their lips met for their first New Year’s Eve kiss, a kiss she hoped they could repeat many times over in the future.

“You doin’ okay?” Natsu asked, walking to her side. She nodded her head, tears rolling down her cheeks as she pulled him into a hug, burying her face in his chest. Natsu rested his chin on her forehead, noting the picture she was still clutching.

“Thank you,” she whispered, muffled further by his shirt, “for all the memories we made this year. I hope we can continue to make them for a very long time,”

Natsu nodded his head, hugging her tightly. “C’mon Luce, ‘course we will. Don’t go all sappy on me again, you weirdo.”

Lucy pulled away, slapping his arm lightly before she laughed.

“You haven’t changed a bit since we met,” she huffed, trying to look mad but unable to wipe the smile off her face.

They continued cleaning, Lucy neatly stacking all the paintings onto the bar counter, Natsu attempting to sweep the glitter from the floor but ending up with it further spread across the guildhall.

By the time everyone else woke up, they found everything clean, save for their now almost certainly permanently glittered hardwood floors, and found Natsu and Lucy asleep again in the corner, Lucy dozing contentedly on his shoulder, Natsu snoring loudly.

“Thank you, you two” Mira said softly as she wrapped yet another blanket around their shoulders, “and happy new year!”


End file.
